The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-10-31
G0RDON'S CAMPAIGN.
Negroes Take No Interest in National Poll
: tics, but Come Out Strong on Fence Law.

PORTSMOUTH, o., Oct. ga heavy storm of
rain broke upon the city with General Gordon.
which intsrferred with the arrangements. The
Dem ccratic managers had made arrangements
to give him hearty reception. but. notwith-
standing the inclement weather, a large audi
ence greeted him. The General, upon being in
troduced, referred to the charge OF being Ku.
klux. made by the Republican press. and denied
iJ fully. asserting that he never, at any time
following the war. belonged to any organization.
except one formed for the maintenance of law
and order. and that he had not at any time been
a member of any secret society. He then
spoke of the charges of sentime ntalism made
by the Commercial Gazette, and acknowledged
the impeachment He argued that all men
actuated by The desire TO promote their countrys
welfare were sentmentaists. He then launched
out on his main address by the statement, first,
that he would speak only of questions affecting
the people of both North and South and second
that he desired to be questioned fully and freely
any point upon which the audience desired to
be Informed. He then spoke of the reception of
Jeff Davis, justifying it in his speech at Gin
cinnati last night. He then referred to the sub
ject of rebel flags used in the Macon denonstra-
ton. and touchingly described the love his peo-
pie felt for those war-stained banners and their
desire to behold them once more at their
reunions. He held that while there were about
a dozen of them unfurled there at least
fifty thousand national flags displayed, but that
Northern correspondents of a partisan press
were affected with color blindness, and could
not them. In referring to the late war, the
General said that at no time had the South de-
81 red to destroy :he Union; that she had fur
nished too much of valor and territory and
blood toward its formation and upbuildiug to
wish 1t destroyed; that the war was only the
outgrowth of a construction of the Constitution
q of ha
North. The sections he compared to two boys
Johnnie and Yank," who fell out over a matter
that could not be peaceably adjusted. and that
Johnnie" having gotten the worst of the fight
had been invited back oy 'Yauk'; that the in
vitation was accepted, and Johnnie" was
back to stay. In substantiation of this
he said the people of the South would not have
the verdict changed If they could; that he had
expressed himself at reunions of confederate
soldiers and in other places, and that he but
ecnoed the sentiments of his couutrymen. The
light vote of his State in presidential elections
he explained by stating that the colored people,
finding they had been robbed by the carpet bag
element after the war, would no longer affiliate
with the Republican party in presidential cleo
tions, and the mass OF them, not caring to
vote with the Democracy. had Simply re-
Trained from voting at all On temperance,
fence law. and other questions of State interest
he said the full vote of both colored and white
people was cast without interference
straint. and that on the latter question the COL
ored men had always csrried the State against
the financial interests OF the whites. The Gen
eral spoke at some length on the condition of
the colored people of the South now. com
pared with that of the years following the war
when they were governed by so called Ikepub-
licans and showed by statistics that the coored
people had increased in wealth tAree-fod
under Democratic rule; that their edu-
cational facilities which were oaid for
out of taxes from the whites, had increased over
twenty fold and that thew were, as a people,
prosperous, contented and fully protect ed in all
their rights. He condemned very severely the
course of certain Northern Republicans in keep
ing alive feelings of sectional aniuiosity, and
charged that in such course lag the greatest
danger our Republic, closing with en- exhorta-
ton to the people of all sections to forget the
passions of the past and unite in a common pur-
pose TO promote the prosperity and exalt the
frraa ne q u